Review
Accent on Youth
Samuel J.
Friedman Theatre (MTC)
April, 2009
Reviewed by Morgan Wycks
Listing
Information
Manhattan Theatre Club's latest Broadway venture is the
ever-so-slight 1930's boulevard comedy, Accent on Youth by Samson Raphaelson
(who wrote The Jazz Singer). So slight it is that a summer breeze could dissolve
it. Amusing, tickling and even making a point, I think, the whole thing feels
like you've stepped back decades to catch a show among the countless plays that
were produced every season during Broadway's heyday. There isn't much to say
about the work other than the fact that its plot concerns a middle-aged
playwright whose latest play concerns a middle-aged man who falls for a woman
half his age. And as luck would have it, the playwright falls for a woman half
his age, his assistant, but only after she declares her love for him. The new
play is a huge success starring the assistant and creates a phenomenon whereby
everywhere middle-aged men are finding love with very young women, and this
group includes the playwright's butler and the lead actor in the play.
None of this is particularly witty though there are some laughs and its point is
as sharp as the insides of an over-ripe melon. It is fortunate that Daniel
Sullivan helms the production and gets charming performances from David Hyde
Pierce as the playwright and Mary Catherine Garrison as the assistant/actress.
Though Charles Kimbrough as the butler and Byron Jennings as the aging actor
have a few mildly funny bits, both actors feel a tad off their game. The lovely
set and costumes are by John Lee Beatty and Jane Greenwood respectively.
If I attended this play again just for the feeling of its history I would wear a
Chesterfield coat and derby over a three-piece suit and my female companion
would don a seal-skin cuffs-at-the-seam wrap over a slinky draped chiffon
showing more than just an ankle. She would also be hopefully half my age.
...end |
